Helen Leonard

Dr Helen Leonard joined the Institute in 1996 and is currently a
NHMRC Senior Research Fellow leading a team of researchers in the
area of childhood disability. Complementing her clinical background
she has also become a leading authority in the epidemiology of
intellectual disability and specific associated syndromes, in
particular Rett Syndrome.

Dr Leonard has established a population-based intellectual
disability database in Western Australia, which is internationally
unique and, with its linkage to other WA population-based
databases, is providing extremely valuable ongoing research output.
She is also a principal investigator and member of an exciting and
innovative international autism registry collaboration which
provides the infrastructure to undertake pooled analyses of data
from a number of countries without the data leaving its home
base.

Dr Leonard has co-authored 126 publications in peer-reviewed
journals, as well as thirteen book chapters and five reports and
her work is highly cited. She is currently a senior editor of
a book on the clinical aspects of Rett syndrome. Since 2000 she has
held 22 competitive grants and attracted funds to the Institute of
$25 million (over $3.0 million as principal grant-holder).

Slack-Smith L, Read A, Colvin L, Leonard H, Kilpatrick N, McAullay
D, Messer L. Total population investigation of dental
hospitalizations in Indigenous children under five years in Western
Australia using linked data. Australian Dental Journal
2011;56(4):358-364.

Slack-Smith L, Colvin L, Leonard H, Kilpatrick N, Messer LB.
Population level investigation of hospital dental admissions for
children under 5 years with intellectual disability. Journal of
Epidemiology and Community Health 2011;65:A371-A371.

Young D, Bebbington A, de Klerk N, Bower C, Nagarajan L, Leonard
H. The relationship between MECP2 mutation type and health status
and service use trajectories over time in a Rett syndrome
population. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders
2011;5(1):442-449.

Thomas K, Bourke J, Girdler S, Bebbington A, Jacoby P, Leonard H.
Variation over time in medical conditions and health service
utilisation of children with Down syndrome. The Journal of
Pediatrics 2011;158(2):194-200.

Hendrie D, Bebbington A, Bower C, Leonard H. Measuring use and
cost of health sector and related care in a population of girls and
young women with Rett syndrome. Research in Autism Spectrum
Disorders 2011;5(2):901-909.

Fehr S, Downs J, Bebbington A, Leonard H. Atypical presentations
and specific genotypes are associated with a delay in diagnosis in
diagnosis in females with Rett syndrome. American Journal of
Medical Genetics Part A 2010;152A:2535-2542.

Young DJ, Bebbington A, Anderson A, Ravine D, Ellaway C, Kulkarni
A, de Klerk N, Kaufmann WE, Leonard H. The diagnosis of autism in a
female: could it be Rett syndrome? European Journal of Pediatrics
2008;167(6):661-9.

Vanlint S, Nugent M, Durvasula S, Downs J, Leonard H. A guide for
the assessment and management of vitamin D status in people with
intellectual disability (developed as an AADDM Working Party
initiative). Journal of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities
2008;33(2):184-8.

Mulroy S, Robertson L, Aiberti K, Bower C, Leonard H. The impact
of having a sibling with an intellectual disability:parental
perspectives in two disorders. Journal of Intellectual Disability
Research 2008;52(3):216-229.

Williams K, Leonard H, d'Espaignet ET, Colvin L, Slack-Smith L,
Stanley F. Hospitalisations from birth to 5 years in a population
cohort of Western Australian children with intellectual disability.
Archives of Disease in Childhood 2005;90(12):1243-1248.

Leonard H, Fyfe S, Dye D, Leonard S. Familial aggregation in Rett
syndrome: What is the evidence for clustering of other disorders in
the families of affected girls? American Journal of Medical
Genetics 1999;82:228-234.